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Where We Live

Indian Hills neighborhood is close to everything, yet miles from daily grind

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoCourtney Hergesheimer | DispatchKim Gallagher walks through Indian Hills with 3-year-old Grady on his bike, 18-month-old McKenna in her stroller and dog Daisy on the leash.

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To get to the Indian Hills Swim Club,
you have to take a stretch of pavement off Stoney Creek Road toward Kempton Run, a creek that runs
along the neighborhood’s southern boundary.

Though it resembles a private drive, the winding road will take you through the trees and over a
narrow bridge to the pool. By the time you get there, you’ll think you are miles from the hum of
the city.

“It’s so secluded, you don’t even know it’s down there, with all the trees around,” said Tammie
Dondero, who leads the residents association’s pool committee. “It’s peaceful.”

It’s also
the gathering spot for Indian Hills residents until the pool closes after Labor Day. About
60 families are pool members and attend Friday-night cookouts, movies, bingo and cornhole
tournaments there.

Neighborhood dogs get the last swim of the season on Saturday. “It really is the social hub of
the neighborhood down there, especially for families with children,” said Bob Jacobsen, treasurer
of the Indian Hills Residents Association. “It’s a wonderful thing.”

The neighborhood, just west of Antrim Park on the Northwest Side, is made up of 307 houses, the
oldest dating to the early 1960s. Jacobsen lives in a house built in 1961.

Political bigwigs, including Columbus Mayor Tom Moody and U.S. Rep. Chalmers Wylie, now both
deceased, once called the neighborhood home.

Like other Columbus neighborhoods, Indian Hills could be mistaken for a nearby suburb — in this
case, Worthington. Many of its houses are larger than 2,000 square feet and are situated on large
lots.

“We could spit to the north and hit Worthington,” Jacobsen said.

In fact, the neighborhood found itself in the middle of a fight decades ago involving the
Columbus and Worthington school districts.

It was 1968, and 2,450 acres, including Indian Hills, sat in the Worthington school district.
But a switch was brewing. Worthington swapped that land for land in the Columbus school district
where the Anheuser-Busch plant was built. Many Indian Hills residents were angry about the
deal.

Residents also have been involved in debates over the expansion of the north runway at Ohio
State University’s Don Scott Field. The neighborhood sits east of the airport and beneath the
flight path of planes taking off and landing.

In 2003, the Indian Hills Residents Association supported the expansion. Jacobsen, the group’s
former president, said the airport is trying to be a good neighbor.

Residents also worry that the airport could be redeveloped into something else someday.

Jacobsen and his wife moved to Indian Hills in 1988 from the Beechwold area, just north of
Clintonville.

“We were in a small house and looking to get a larger house, start our family,” he said.

Dondero, who moved to the neighborhood with her husband and two daughters five years ago, said
she got to know her neighbors after she joined the pool in 2007. She and her husband, Tim, moved
from Lexington, Ky. A friend who lives in Worthington suggested Indian Hills.

“We were just driving around,” she said.

They saw a “for sale” sign and stopped. They heard about the pool and Antrim Park, and said, “
OK, this is it.’ ”

Their daughters, Hanna and Lauren, attend St. Michael Catholic School in Worthington.

Another fan of the pool is 15-year-old Emma Steele, a first-year lifeguard.

“I was here every day,” said Steele, a sophomore at the Wellington School, a private school in
Upper Arlington. “I’ve always had a good relationship with the lifeguards and families.”

Meanwhile, Dondero is preparing for the next pool fundraiser. On Sept. 17, a fan will propel
plastic ducks across the pool. Residents can buy a duck for $10, or three for $20.

The winner — the person whose duck hits the end of the pool first — gets a free family
membership to the pool next year. The money raised will buy new chairs for the pool — new chairs
for another summer of neighbors.